New Mock Draft Misses Mark for Giants in First Round

The newest mock draft from The 33rd Team is creative but unlikely to play out.

Penn State Nittany Lions defensive end Abdul Carter / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

A new mock draft by Marcus Mosher of The 33rd Team might be the most creative one we’ve seen. It completely shakes up the top of the first round, thanks to a trade involving the New York Giants.

In the mock, Mosher has the Giants trading down with the 49ers, who hold the 11th spot in the order, and give up their 2026 first-round pick to the Giants to swap places in the first-round order.

The 49ers then take Penn State edge Abdul Carter, a prospect recently heavily linked to the Giants. The Giants, with pick No. 11, take Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

To be fair to Mosher, his mock was published before Saints quarterback

Derek Carr’s shoulder issue came out. Regardless, we are not buying Mosher’s logic for justifying this proposed trade. 

First, we are confident that the Giants are not looking to drop out of the top 10, even if they were to trade down (which we sincerely doubt they will). 

At best, we could see them moving down a couple of spots, but with that said, if they were to trade down, they would miss out on one of Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter or Carter, both of whom are considered among the top three prospects in this draft.

Mosher seems to think that if Hunter doesn’t fall to the Giants, they might as well move down. 

He states, “With Brian Burns, Kavon Thibodeaux, and Chauncey Golston already under contract, the Giants cash in this pick and add an additional first-round pick to restart the rebuild.”

We can appreciate cashing in and getting an extra first-round pick, but here’s the problem with the proposal: The Giants need to win NOW. General manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll are entering Year 4, not Year 1 or Year 2. 

They must produce more than the three wins they generated last season against a tough slate of opponents. And to have a chance at doing that, they need an impact player such as Carter or Hunter, depending on who’s there at No. 3. 

The other problem with this proposal is the “logic” presented to justify a trade-down. Mosher notes the Giants have Kayvon Thibodeaux, Brian Burns, and Chauncey Golston under contract. But as former general manager Ernie Accorsi once said, a team “can’t have too many pass rushers.” 

The minute a team starts avoiding taking a player because there are too many players in the position, the general manager and those advising him need to be fired. SChoen has set up this draft so that the team has options to fill in the depth.

Taking Carter at No. 3 has benefits for the Giants, including his ability to spell Thibodeaux and Burns to help keep them fresh, using him to blitz at the expense of taking Micah McFadden off the field on obvious passing downs, and playing the amoeba defense, which leaves opposing teams guessing who’s coming and who’s dropping into coverage.

Disqualifying the best available player just because the team seems to have a lot at the position is not a smart way to build a roster.

As for Sanders, over the last few weeks, it’s become clear that the tide seems to be moving away from him. The Giants are more likely to draft a guy from their Tier 2 group, which is believed to include prospects such as Tyler Shough (Louisville) and Kyle McCord (Syracuse).

Regardless of who the quarterback is, he will sit this year behind the two veterans (Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston). If you’re the Giants, you take a quarterback on Day 2 and see how he develops. If he doesn’t produce, you return to the drawing board next year when the pickings won’t be as slim.  

We’ll find out how the first round unfolds in less than two weeks, but it’s probably safe to say that it won’t unfold as outlined in this mock draft.

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